THE NEW COLONY 331 



the exigencies of business induced the settlers to continue an ever- 

 increasing occupation of the submerged sites. Thus the flood of 

 November, 1849, which was preceded by a devastating hurricane, 

 inflicted losses in goods and buildings to the extent of fully 20,000 

 in the metropolis, while the losses in sheep and other stock in the 

 surrounding districts was estimated to have exceeded that amount. 

 The portions of the city liable to these sudden invasions were too 

 central and too valuable from a business point of view to be 

 vacated, and there was a general impression abroad that such 

 visitations were quite exceptional and could be made harmless by 

 providing the river with a more direct access to the bay. Contro- 

 versy over the best method of doing this raged hotly for many 

 years, but the enormous outlay involved was a deterrent. The 

 history of the final process by which the recurrence of floods 

 ceased to be a terror belongs to a later period, when success was 

 secured by an expenditure which the young colony would not have 

 dared to contemplate. 



There was, however, one day in 1851, when another and even 

 more destructive element wrought such appalling havoc throughout 

 the land that for a generation afterwards it could scarcely be spoken 

 of without a shudder. The anniversary of the 6th of February, 

 1851, has been perpetuated in Australian almanacs under the 

 name of " Black Thursday," a day whose lurid horrors have been 

 chronicled by many writers and depicted by more than one painter. 

 The summer had been one of exceptional heat and drought. The 

 country from the Murray to the sea was brown with desiccated 

 herbage, and forests charged with resinous matter baked to the 

 verge of conflagration. It wanted but some slightly careless act of 

 man to set in motion a devastating fury against which no human 

 intervention could stand. It will probably never be known exactly 

 how or where the fire or fires originated. The belief at the time 

 was that it was started by the recklessness of some bullock drivers 

 leaving an unextinguished camp fire at the foot of the Plenty 

 Eanges. How great a matter a little fire kindleth is proverbial, 

 but it seems almost incredible that this awful calamity could have 

 sprung from one source with such inconceivable rapidity. It is true 

 that the Plenty district appeared to have suffered most severely, but 



